Quadrupeds. 7377 



Postscript to ' Notes on the Fauna of Shetland.' — In reference to my paper on tlie 

 Fauna of Shetland (Zool. 7337), permit me to observe that I was quite ignorant of 

 tlie fad that a similar list had already appeared in the pages of the ' Zoologist.' 

 Dr. Edmonston, my kind host, and the father of the late Mr. T. Edmonston, besides 

 much valuable oral information, allowed me to make use of some printed papers of 

 his own on the Ornithology of Shetland, and which I imagined to be the only ones in 

 existence : I cannot help adding, however, that my paper was in the hands of the 

 Editor for three months, during which time I might easily have received notice of 

 my omission. A few errata should be noticed : p. 7338, line 13 from top, for " young 

 of what are called sillocks" read "young of the coal- fish, which are called sillocks;" 

 p. 7343, the local name for Uria grylle is " tystie," not "lyrtie;" p. 7345, for the 

 stormy petrel the name is " spency." I observe that Mr. Doubleday doubted the 

 occurrence of Tetanus hypoleucos in Shetland in winter. I cannot, it is true, prove 

 the statement; but as undoubtedly many birds come both from the North of Scotland 

 as well as from Iceland to winter in Shetland, on account of its high winter tem- 

 perature, I think it very possible that the summer snipe may thus remain, or be 

 replaced by others from colder latitudes. — JV. D. Crotch ; Uphill House, Weston- 

 super-Mare, February 4, 1861. 



[Mr. Crotch was absent on the Continent during the interval, and two or three 

 letters which I had occasion to write to him remained unanswered on this account. 

 The publication of his paper was deferred some weeks, in the hope that I should be 

 able to refer him to Mr. T. Edmonston's paper on the same subject. — E. Netvman.'] 



Halichoerus " At Home." — If you have never seen seals in the privacy of domestic 

 life, living unmolested in their island home, I would recommend you to visit Todomosiri, 

 in the Gulf of Tartary. As, however, that little spot is a very long way off, I will endea- 

 vour to give you some idea of one of those wild scenes in wild out-of-the-way places where 

 whalers put in for water, and take the same opportunity of knocking on the head a few 

 hundred seals to complete their cargo. The -small barren islet called Monueron by 

 La Perouse, and Todomosiri or Seal Island by the Japanese, is situated on the north 

 side of the west entrance to La Perouse Strait. It is a huge mass of bare trachyte, a 

 steep weather-stained rock rising 1500 feet abruptly from the sea, and with some 

 detached rocks on its eastern side. A great brown gull, greedy for fish-bones and 

 oflFal, hovers round the base ; a lonely cormorant, with outstretched neck, is drying her 

 expanded wings on the salient angle of a black crag, and a little hawk is soaring 

 high above the summit. These are the only birds ; oysters, mussels and limpets are 

 the only mollusks ; a carrion-beetle, a large black Silpha, is the only insect met with. 

 The other inhabitants are seals. Many of these are swimming and diving around the 

 island, as is shown by uncouth red-brown heads showing now and then above the sur- 

 face of the water ; others are basking in the sun, motionless on the broad smooth 

 rocks, the remnants of their fish-dinners strewn about them. The bones of some 

 which have died from old age or wounds are bleaching in the wind, and the carcases 

 of others are seen decomposed, and torn by gulls and cormorants. The dirt, stench 

 and strange company, with the wild great rocks towering all around, produce an 

 impression certainly novel, but not altogether agreeable. We are anchored pretty close 

 under the lee of the island, and directly opposite the ship is a little white shingly 

 VOL. XIX. M 



